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Mark Sperry

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Everything posted by Mark Sperry

  1. 2nd vote for Cinelab. They have done great work for me and the rates are reasonable. It's always expensive generally but Cinelab makes it cheapish. I think it's actually the same hour-rate up to about 7 or 8 reels.
  2. Are these things confirmed or just rumors? Seems beyond my wildest dreams honestly! 4k potential, max 8, NYC lab! Insane. I am looking forward to shooting SOOO much more super 8. The cherry on this Sundae of Glory would be if they'll overscan for me and show the film edge. :wub:
  3. I noticed that they're using the Ricoh Pentax 6mm 1.2 as an option in the early specs. Not bad, I use that lens on my 4008.
  4. Well of course one thing we have to come to expect is that we're not going to get the nice, big files that we get from current labs. No way Kodak can offer ProRes HQ. It'll be a compressed something file which will not be as malleable in editing. But yeah, film photo labs like The FIND Lab, Indie Film Lab and RPL offer digital downloads and it's awesome. The files are jpgs though so it's just a trade off that you have to deal with. I always like to overscan my Super 8 and I know I'm going to have to say goodbye to that, but I can't say no to the price. The scan just needs to look great though, and really resolve the grain. I hate mushy Super 8 scans that just look like poop video.
  5. Ugh, don't get me started on 100D. Negative stocks are great but 100D looked fantastic. That color pallet was perfect. But yes as others have said depending on where they go a 500-750 dollar price target is not unreasonable for a company that can partner with Asian factories. The screen doesn't exactly have to be a Retina display, the expense will probably come from all the moving parts. It's not going to tempt me away from my Max 8 4008 though. I love that camera!
  6. Nice! I have two Pro8mm mod'd cameras so I'm all set for gear but the transfer capability sounds fantastic. I have felt so hampered by process and xfer costs over the years. If I can get a semi-decent HD xfer for $50-75 dollars (film included!!!!) that would hugely enable my shooting for personal projects and travel. I do hope they have the capability to scan max-8 since I went that route with my 4008zm. :-) I'm so glad to see Kodak stepping it up. WORKFLOW is holding back film way more than anything else IMO. It needs to catch up in a huge way.
  7. I'll defend the new films a bit... Trek had been dead for a while. Next Gen was the last wide success that reached beyond the core fan base. They made two great Next Gen Trek movies, Generations, and First Contact, and then the next two were really fan-only features. The problem was that they both ran like an average Trek episode would run but with slightly higher stakes. However, I'll argue that the best Trek films deal with the existential threats to the entire Federation or Trek universe. A film where they arrive at a planet, beam down and solve some moral problem just doesn't play well on the big screen, but is perfect for the TV format. Consider that the best Trek movies in general are 2, VI, Generations and First Contact. The rest you can probably take or leave. The successes are pretty action oriented generally, though they do a good job of including some form of ethical questions in some cases. Probably most notably in VI, which mirrored the fall of the Soviet Union. Abrams had to re-launch the series from scratch. There is no way that they could just try a new ship in the same world, only die hard fans would care. He also had to get the maximum amount of people to remember that Star Trek can be pretty great fun. I think he's done a fantastic job of this, and we FINALLY have word that a new series is coming to the small screen. That's really the endgame for Trek. It works best as a series because it needs to play with different moral and ethical themes through different lenses of character and story. A 2 hour movie just isn't a great format for something that might meander around that much. Star Trek is also different for everyone who watches it. Some people love the simpler sci-fi fun of a ship and an adventure, and some people like the headier stuff that they have done so well on the small screen. I am hopeful that Abrams and co's adrenaline shot to the heart is strong enough to keep the franchise alive. However people from the last generation, or even before that need to realize that going forward Star Trek is as much or more, for the NEW generation of fans. It's gonna change, and we might not love all of those changes. I am attached to the characters though, and so I'm sure I'll keep coming back. For those of you who don't like the new Trek, I can recommend a series of books that might give you the fix you're looking for. I believe it was also some level of inspiration for Star Trek too. I'm talking about the Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian, starting with Master and Commander (yes, the Russel Crow one). The books are much better than the film. Plus all the seafaring is as much fun as the spacefaring. 21 novels should be enough to get you through half a decade and may keep you out of the theater for when Beyond comes out.
  8. I've been watching this too and I'm hooked. It's so good! I think the prettiest thing on TV is The Knick, but I have to say the recent stuff coming from Alexa photographed shows are pretty fantastic. That episode on Sunday that ended in the extreme close ups of the two women was really stunning.
  9. Guys, I love film, I've seen a lot of films. Just haven't seen Ben Hur yet. As a person that is posting right now on cinematography forums it's pretty likely that I'm going to get around to it. My broader point was that LOTS of people haven't, and they're also not commenting on this forum, or really giving a poop about much of anything that isn't right in front of them. With that in mind, I'm saying that there is room to make a new version. I'm also idealistic enough to think that they could do it without making 300 part 3. No reason it can't look great. No reason it can't be even shot on 70mm! Yeesh.
  10. Ben Hur is old enough to be a good candidate I think. A competent film maker could do a lot with what we have to offer these days. I'm 31 years old and I've never see the 1959 version, a huge amount of people are in the same boat. Short making a big re-release hullabaloo they're not going to. Plays go on Broadway more than once, Shakespear is constantly re-interpreted. Almost anything is fair game IMO. I thought it was a lot dumber to re-make Willy Wonka when the original is so good, and so iconic. The original The Thing is great, as is the remake IMO! Depends on what you're making. I just watched Rosemary's Baby and personally I wouldn't mind seeing that story told through a modern perspective, and I would get to enjoy both! It's all in the execution.
  11. I have a 60" Vizio tv and even when The Master comes on, on HBO (so not the best feed), I can see the difference. Colors are richer, the depth of the image is finer, and of course very low grain. I never buy that 'won't see the difference' argument. Format influences the look of the final image far more than people realize. That's why I love the variation we have these days, from Super 8 to 70mm to Alexa65!
  12. I dunno if you guys watch Project Greenlight but film/digital was a big plot point and film won! I think it was manufactured tension personally. You might simply be seeing a lot of film shooting because of the minimum order quantity as per the agreement with Kodak. That's a happy byproduct perhaps. I had been saying for years that this rush to shoot everything in 3D was a waste of time since what they should have been focusing on is larger or more interesting formats! Imagine if instead of fumbling The Hobbit with 3D HFR, (which was so quickly forgotten because everyone hated it) that PJ just shot 65mm and IMAX. The Master looks incredible, and you don't need a 4k projector and a theater to see the difference. The larger format is obvious even at home in HD. It's not just the film itself btw, I'm really excited to see some Alexa65 work. If I had the option I'd skip 35mm altogether and go from Super 16 to 65mm personally. And even in smaller formats you get a ton of character. Super 16 brought Moonrise Kingdom to life and works well for that kind of fantasy world. I do Super 8 weddings because HD has not done the human race any favors. The film complete transforms the day and hides all the crap you might as well forget. There needs to be better and more affordable scanning/Transfer solutions though! I don't mind digital projection if it retains the look of the original medium.
  13. What tank are you using? The Lomo ones? I really want to try this. I've done a lot of b&W processing for still cameras over the years. I would shoot a ton more Tri-X Super 8 if it was easy to run the film. I guess a problem would still be the xfer. I don't really feel like dropping the cash on the Retro-8.
  14. I've been enjoying Project Greenlight this season. Most specifically all of the dogs that one of the Farrelly brothers has at his house. Anyway the guy keeps pushing for film which I respect, although I think in the context of the project there is nothing that specifically demands film. But do they really not have the budget for even Super 16? I find that pretty hard to believe. I've seen a number of indie movies with similar budgets that managed to shoot film, why not this project for HBO? I realize that it may just be manufactured tension. As a 2nd question, what would it really cost to shoot film on a project like this? I do super 8 at weddings so I really have no idea. :-)
  15. So on that same logic, 1/24th at 24fps...I assume. I wonder if I dare to try this at my next wedding... It seems like it would really only give me one extra stop. Still not exactly allowing me to shoot at receptions...
  16. Whoa I've never heard of this.... How would you meter for it???? Would this allow me to bring Super 8 into my wedding receptions more easily? I've got a Nikon R8 I no longer use that works....
  17. I live in Brooklyn and I have a great R8 that I would sell for $200.00. Otherwise I would be willing to rent you a Pro8mm 'Classic Pro' with max 8 mod. I got it at the start of the summer. We could work out rental rates and other things. It's not CS though... It has the 8-64/1.9 and I have one lithium cell.
  18. I'm looking to try out some of the new films coming out of Wittner and Adox but they're hard to find in the USA from normal sources. B&H is only special order, up to 14 days. Are there any reliable sources for some non-Kodak Super 8 films? I don't want to use any services that have the processing built in because I send everything to Cinelab for xfer. I know wittnerchrome got a bad wrap but I kinda liked it!
  19. They're both not quite right. The BMPCC shoots like a prototype IMO. The controls were hardly thought out at all, and the battery choice is odd to say the least. The camera badly needs an update to give it a stop or two better low light noise, but even more than that, better ergonomic controls. There was way too much menu diving to do something as simple as change ISO or shutter speed. It could also use a tilting high resolution display so you can fine focus. While I'm dreaming, why not throw in 2.5k! :-) I like the Bolex's design a lot more both functionally and of course in form. I like that it's native C mount, and they developed their own lens line. I think it was really smart to make a monochrome only camera too. If somebody put them both in front of me and told me I had to choose, I'd pick the D16. I mean this IS the Super 8 forum so it's not like we're all about practicality here. ;) My 4008ZM 'Classic Pro' modified arrives tonight! Can't wait to make some mooooovies.
  20. You can buy one! They even came out with a monochrome only model. They are a niche, of course, and 'project' cameras in and of themselves, but they appear to be operating normally. Their lens line is forthcoming too, but nearly finalized as far as I can tell. http://www.digitalbolex.com/
  21. It's built new from the ground up probably mostly by hand and not compiled from cheap components in some far off factory. They'll probably sell a relative handful of these a year, how cheap can it be??? Better that it's expensive and done right. Need cheap, buy a 310XL! This is a professional camera. I'm sure rentals are available at low cost. Yeesh!
  22. I guess a follow up question would be, how about just wide angle converters? Optical quality doesn't have to be amazing. I use this stuff pretty creatively after all. Soft corners aren't the end of the world to me. And trust me, my brides benefit but a little softening. :-)
  23. Well I bought the lens and the camera at the same time so yes, they collimated lens to the camera. I know what CS mount lenses are and I know they won't work.
  24. Thanks Will! I know it probably won't be as good as the Angie 8-64/1.9 I have coming, but I'm looking for wides here. Since I don't have the optivaron the 6/1.2 I just won on a fleabay auction should at least help. Choices are slim... Thank you Glenn! I will look for those Century lenses. Can you possibly tell me what the collimation process entails? What would a place like Du-All charge for that service? I know my zoom comes pre collimated to my Classic Pro, so that would should be good.
  25. I just picked up a Classic Pro AKA 4008zm from Pro8mm. I'm wondering how other lenses that are C mount do on it, specifically even some of the industrial surveillance camera lenses. I've got my eye on a Computar 6mm 1.2 and I'm trying to find a 3.5mm lens that will work well with it. Are there any compatibility issues that I will run into either from differences in flange distance or something like that? Does anyone have a specific recommendation? Thanks!
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